■ RETAL
Wal-Mart sales held up
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's biggest retailer, said it is having problems processing gift cards. In a statement on Wednesday, Wal-Mart said once it discovered the problem, it investigated and found that a "third-party verifier's systems had an inadvertent processing error." The retailer said the error caused delays in gift card verifications. "We are working with the supplier to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and we apologize for the inconvenience to our customers," the store said in the statement.
■ LENDING
China lowers loan target
China's central bank has set a lower target for loan growth at 12 percent for next year to curb lending growth and cool the economy, state media reported yesterday. Lending growth would be strictly controlled and branches required to report new loans monthly, the Shanghai Securities News reported, citing a source with a major state-owned bank. The lending growth target for this year was 15 percent. But that has already been overshot with new yuan loans up nearly 21 percent from year-on-year between last January and last month.
■ VIETNAM
Trade deficit doubles
Vietnam's trade deficit more than doubled to a record this year, the government estimated, driven primarily by accelerating import growth as the country's industrialization target stokes machinery purchases. The gap widened to US$12.44 billion this year from US$5.07 billion last year, according to preliminary figures released yesterday by the General Statistics Office in Hanoi. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told a conference in Hanoi this month that the government wants Vietnam to become an industrialized country by 2020. To meet the goal, Vietnam must import materials to build power plants, roads and refineries that are now moving from a drawing-board phase to the construction stage.
■ JAPAN
Balancing books not easy
Japan's government may not be able to achieve its goal of balancing its books by 2011, the Finance Ministry's top official said. "It's clear that we can't be optimistic about balancing the budget" by then, Vice Finance Minister Hiroki Tsuda said at a news conference in Tokyo yesterday. "We're going to keep making the utmost efforts to revamp spending and revenue." Japan has set a goal of achieving primary balance of its budget by April 2011. Tsuda cited a report by members of the government's economic panel that said balancing the budget by 2011 will only be possible if Japan keeps cutting spending and increasing revenue and economic growth at home and abroad remains solid.
■ OIL
Shell joins methane project
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company, bought a 55 percent stake in a venture to develop coal-bed methane close to its joint gas project with PetroChina Co in northern China. China's Ministry of Commerce approved an agreement for Shell to acquire the stake in Verona Development Corp in a 30-year production-sharing contract, the company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The exploration of the North Shilou block in the Ordos Basin will end in of 2010, followed by five years of development and another 20 years of production, it said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique